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Reprinted  from  The  Annals   of  the  Ainoricaii  Acadoniy  of  Political  and  Social 

Sciuuce,  I'hiladolphiu,  Jamiarj),  1919. 
Publication  No.  1255. 


Placing  Soldiers  on  Farm  Colonies  (Z^ 

By  Elwood  Mead 

npHERE  is  reason  to  hope  that  one  of  the  results  of  the  war  will 
"*•  be  a  carefully  thought  out,  social  land-settlement  policy. 
This  is  something  the  nation  has  long  needed  but  never  enjoyed. 
Although  there  has  been  administered  from  Washington  the  great- 
est area  of  fertile  land  ever  controlled  under  one  civil  polity  there 
has  never  been  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  government  to  plan 
in  advance  the  development  of  any  particular  area  so  as  to  create 
an  agriculture  that  would  maintain  or  increase  the  fertility  of  the 
soil,  that  would  regard  the  farm  as  not  solely  a  place  to  make 
money,  but  the  means  of  a  healthy,  independent  existence  and 
the  center  of  family  life.  There  has  been  no  attempt  to  select 
colonists  so  that  they  would  be  harmonious  or  agreeable  members 
of  the  rural  community  or  effective  agents  in  rural  development. 
There  has  been  no  attempt  to  fix  the  size  of  farms  so  that  they 
would  have  a  definite  relation  to  the  ability  of  the  settler  to  culti- 
vate them  properly  or  to  the  income  needed  to  give  a  comfortable 
support  to  a  family. 

The  social  and  economic  importance  of  having  land  owned  by 
its  cultivators  and  of  having  such  restriction  on  tenure  as  would 
prevent  land  monopolj^  was  not  realized.  As  a  nation  we  have 
acted  on  the  idea  that  anyone  who  was  strong  enough  and  shrewd 
enough  to  own  the  earth  was  privileged  to  do  so.  In  our  early 
history,  land  was  sold  chiefly  to  the  speculators.  Later  on  it  was 
given  away  mainly  to  corporations  and  to  states,  and  the  corpora- 
tion and  the  state  alike  paid  little  attention  to  the  kind  of  agri- 
culture or  the  riu-al  society  which  an  unthinking  disposal  of  these 
lands  to  private  owTiers  might  create.  Men  who  bought  lands 
from  railroads  and  from  states  did  not,  as  a  rule,  buy  with  the  idea 
of  becoming  farmers  or  of  creating  an  enduring  kind  of  agriculture. 
They  usually  bought  to  sell  again  at  a  profit,  and  from  1870  until 
near  the  close  of  the  nineteentli  century  we  had  in  this  country 
the  unfortunate  spectacle  of  the  federal  government  unable  to 
prevent  wholesale  frauds  under  the  Homestead  and  Desert-Land 
Acts,  and  the  railroad,   the   state   and   the   private  speculator 

1 


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20S08 


arii'^^-a 


2  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

selling  land  under  conditions  of  development  fixed  mainly  by  the 
colonization  agent. 

This  review  of  our  past  shortsighted  carelessness  is  indulged  in 
primarily  to  show  how  great  would  be  the  change  if  in  place  of 
this  the  experience  and  wisdom  of  our  ablest  minds  were  enhsted 
in  an  effort  to  plan  rural  development  in  advance,  to  think  out 
what  an  agricultural  community  needs,  what  obstacles  will  con- 
front the  man  of  limited  capital  who  seeks  to  achieve  landed  inde- 
pendence, and  what  can  be  done  to  help  him  overcome  them. 

Such  a  planned  land-settlement  policy  should  be  put  in  opera- 
tion at  once  if  the  nation  meets  adequately  the  situation  now  upon 
it.  Over  a  million  soldiers  were  drawn  from  rural  pursuits.  An 
equal  number  should  be  returned.  The  argument  for  this  is  that 
an  increase  in  farm  products  will  meet  an  m*gent  national  need. 
Before  the  war,  this  country  had  begun  to  realize  that  something 
should  be  done  to  insure  a  more  abundant  and  cheaper  food  supply. 
We  were  importing  butter  from  Australia,  meat  from  Argentina, 
sugar  from  many  countries.  There  was  no  shortage  but  there  was 
increasing  diflSculty  on  the  part  of  wage-earners  in  providing  their 
children  with  an  adequate  amount  of  wholesome,  nourishing  food, 
the  things  the  citizens  of  the  future  should  have. 

The  end  of  the  war  finds  the  cost  of  food  so  increased  as  to  be  a 
serious  menace  to  industrial  progress  and  political  stability.  The 
milk  riots  of  cities  and  the  declaration  of  the  Food  Administration 
that  price  control  of  foods  should  continue  for  several  years  are 
two  of  many  indications.  Every  European  country  feels  the 
pinch  of  hunger  and  some  are  menaced  by  famine.  Not  only 
have  the  world's  available  stores  of  food  been  exhausted  but  Eu- 
rope looks  to  this  country  to  increase  production  to  meet  its 
people's  needs  and  this  is  causing  the  fertility  of  farm  lands  to  be 
depleted  at  a  rapid  rate  by  overcropping. 

More  farms  and  more  attractive  and  better-organized  rural 
life  are  therefore  among  the  nation's  foremost  economic  require- 
ments. Only  those  who  have  studied  the  conditions  of  rural  life 
in  this  country  in  recent  years  fully  realize  the  political  and  eco- 
nomic value  of  soldier  settlements  created  under  carefully  thought 
out  plans.  Such  settlements  will  give  to  some  sections  of  the 
country  an  agriculture  and  a  democratic  rural  life  they  have  thus 
far  lacked.     A  journey  from  New  York  to  Atlanta,  Ga.,  through 


^  yric.  f 


Placing  Soldiers  on  Farm  Colonies  3 

the  Piedmont  area,  with  its  succession  of  abandoned  fields  and 
destructive  methods  of  tillage,  shows  that  we  are  to  have  a  rude 
awakening  unless  there  is  a  complete  reform  in  our  agricultural 
practices.  One  century  has  done  more  to  impoverish  the  soil  in 
this  region  than  a  thousand  years  of  intensive  cultivation  on  the 
farms  of  Europe. 

We  have  slashed  away  our  splendid  wealth  of  forests.  We 
have  planted  hillsides  to  cultivated  crops  with  no  binding  material 
in  their  roots,  and  winter  rains  have  washed  off  the  stored -up 
fertility  of  centm-ies  and  left  them  scarred  with  gullies,  with  many 
fields  which  now  grow  only  weeds  and  brush.  Instead  of  the 
land  being  owned  by  its  cultivators,  we  have  a  menacing  increase 
in  the  area  farmed  by  tenants.  Formerly  indifferent  to  land 
tenure,  we  are  now  beginning  to  realize,  as  yet  vaguely  and  uncer- 
tainly, that  if  we  are  to  be  a  real  economic  democracy  we  cannot 
tolerate  land  monopoly  nor  allow  this  nation  to  become  a  revolu- 
tionary Russia  through  the  growth  of  non-resident  ownership 
and  tenant  cultivation  of  land. 

It  is  a  happy  coincidence,  therefore,  that  the  open,  healthful 
life  of  the  farm  is  what  a  large  percentage  of  the  returning  soldiers 
will  desire.  This  has  been  shown  by  the  demand  for  farms  by  the 
soldiers  of  Australia  who  have  been  invalided  home,  and  by  the 
inquiry  by  soldiers  now  in  the  American  Army  for  farms  under 
the  land  settlement  act  of  California. 

Two  years  ago  the  legislature  of  that  state  created  a  state  land 
settlement  board  and  authorized  the  purchase,  subdivision  and 
improvement  of  10,000  acres  of  land  and  its  sale  in  small,  ready- 
made  farms  to  settlers.  It  was  not  a  war  measure  but  was  in- 
tended to  be  a  demonstration  of  what  could  be  done  through 
government  aid  and  direction  to  create  broader  opportunities  for 
poor  men. 

The  first  lands  purchased  under  this  act  were  settled  last  June. 
Fathers  of  four  soldiers  in  our  army  applied  for  farms  for  their 
sons.  These  were  granted.  Another  tract  of  land  will  be  settled 
in  November.  One  father  writes:  "I  have  three  sons  fighting  in 
France.  They  all  want  to  be  farmers.  Isn't  there  some  way  by 
which  I  can  apply  for  one  farm  for  myself  and  another  for  my 
oldest  boy?  The  four  of  us  will  then  work  the  two  farms  to- 
gether."    Soldiers  have  written  asking  if  they  could  register  as 


4  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

applicants,  and,  if  it  had  been  legally  possible  to  give  them  prefer- 
ence, not  a  single  farm  would  go  to  a  civilian.  There  are  tens  of 
thousands  of  such  young  men  in  the  American  Army. 

It  means  much  for  the  success  of  the  soldiers'  settlement  pro- 
posed that  our  young  men  abroad  have  been  hving  for  the  past 
year  in  countries  which  are  not  only  examples  of  the  best  kind  of 
agriculture,  but  where  the  ownership  of  a  farm  has  back  of  it 
tradition  and  sentiment  that  thus  far  rural  life  in  this  country 
has  lacked.  The  farm  home  of  France  is  the  altar  of  the  family  life. 
Love  for  the  soil  by  the  French  and  Belgian  farmer  is  the  main- 
spring of  his  love  of  country.  Fresh  from  these  impressions,  these 
young  men  will  be  ideal  material  to  build  up  a  new  and  better 
rural  life  in  this  country,  to  help  end  our  speculative  and  migra- 
tory development  and  create  communities  that  will  be  reservoirs 
of  patriotism  and  new  sources  of  national  strength. 

The  Nation  and  State  Should  Cooperate 

Assuming  that  we  will  follow  the  example  of  the  other  Allied 
countries  and  create  opportunities  for  ex-soldiers  to  obtain  homes 
in  the  country,  there  arises  at  once  the  question  as  to  whether  the 
state  governments  or  Congress  shall  direct  the  undertaking. 
Thus  far,  it  has  been  considered  mainly  as  a  national  matter,  the 
movement  having  been  inaugurated  and  national  interest  therein 
aroused  and  maintained  chiefly  through  the  influence  and  efforts 
of  Secretary  Lane. 

The  great  extent  of  this  country,  the  wide  variation  in  the  soils, 
climate  and  productions,  and  the  different  ideas  and  habits  of  the 
people  seem  to  make  it  desirable  that  both  the  national  and  state 
governments  should  take  part  in  the  movement.  This  plan  has 
been  adopted  in  several  English-speaking  countries. 

Another  reason  for  state  participation  is  that  it  can  provide  the 
land  and  be  a  responsible  partner  in  this  movement  with  a  small 
appropriation  of  money.  Visits  to  many  states  have  shown  that 
where  it  is  not  possible  to  secure  an  appropriation  of  money  to 
buy  land,  the  owners  will  turn  their  property  over  to  the  state 
under  a  contract  which  permits  of  its  sale  to  settlers,  the  owners 
of  the  land  to  be  paid  from  the  settlers'  payments.  The  Cali- 
fornia Land  Settlement  Board  is  offered  all  the  land  that  it  cares 
to  colonize  on  these  terms,  and  there  was  not  back  of  these  offers 


Placing  Soldiers  on  Farm  Colonies  5 

the  inspiration  of  patriotism  which  attaches  to  the  soldier-settle- 
ment movement,  nor  does  tlie  federal  government  in  any  way 
assist  in  the  improvement  of  the  land  as  it  will  in  the  soldier- 
settlement  movement. 

In  Australia  the  commonwealth  government  provides  the  money 
for  developing  and  improving  farms;  the  different  states  provide 
the  land.  In  Canada  both  the  dominion  and  the  states  provide 
land  and  money.  In  Ireland  the  empire  provides  the  money,  but 
the  success  of  Irish  land  settlement  never  would  have  been  com- 
plete had  it  not  been  for  the  intimate,  patient  assistance  to  set- 
tlers furnished  by  the  Agricultural  Organization  Society. 

Legislation  in  Congress  should  be  of  such  a  character  that  any 
state  could  enjoy  whatever  assistance  the  federal  government 
extends,  provided  that  the  state  itself  is  willing  to  assume  a  proper 
share  of  the  cost  and  of  responsibility  for  results. 

The  greater  part  of  the  land  to  be  used  in  settlement  is  in  pri- 
vate ownership.  Here  is  the  field  for  state  action.  The  state 
should  provide  the  land,  both  the  price  and  quality  of  the  land 
to  be  approved  by  the  federal  authorities.  The  federal  govern- 
ment should,  however,  prepare  the  land  for  settlement. 

The  largest  fields  for  settlement  are  the  neglected  lands  of  the 
Eastern  and  South  Atlantic  States,  the  logged-ofF  lands,  the 
swamp  lands  of  the  South  and  West,  and  the  arid  lands  of  the 
West.  Here,  development  can  take  place  without  disturbing 
existing  cultivators.  But  before  this  is  possible  there  must  be  a 
large  expenditure  in  development.  This  work  should  be  car- 
ried out  by  the  federal  government  because  the  United  States 
Reclamation  Service  is  already  organized,  has  behind  it  a  15- 
years'  record  of  successful  achievement,  and  has  the  facts  and  the 
expert  staff  needed  to  begin  work  promptly  and  carry  it  to  suc- 
cessful completion. 

The  two  foundations  of  the  system  should  be,  therefore,  that 
the  state  provide  land,  approved  by  the  federal  authorities,  and 
the  reclamation  service  should  prepare  the  land  for  settlement. 

Capital  a  Soldier  Should  Have 

It  will  be  a  serious  mistake  to  give  this  opportunity  to  all 
soldiers.  Those  who  have  not  had  experience  ought  to  go  through 
a  course  of  training  to  know  whether  they  like  farm  life  and  to 


6  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

determine  whether  they  are  fitted  to  succeed.  It  is  no  kindness 
to  the  individual  to  let  him  undertake  something  in  which  failure 
is  probable.  Every  settler  who  takes  a  farm  should  have  some 
capital.  This  should  be  required  as  a  protection  against  over- 
confidence  and  inexperience.  There  ought  to  be  a  part  of  the 
expenditure  on  which  the  settler  does  not  have  to  pay  interest. 
There  ought  to  be  some  reserve  on  which  he  can  fall  back  in  case 
of  illness  or  misfortune.  Such  a  rule  is  necessary  to  the  solvency 
of  the  undertaking.  If  farms  were  thrown  open  indiscriminately 
to  settlers  without  capital,  men  with  no  seriousness  of  purpose 
and  no  real  interest  in  agriculture  would  be  willing  to  take  a  fling 
because  it  costs  nothing,  and  they  would  be  equally  willing  to 
abandon  the  enterprise  for  some  trivial  cause.  In  the  interest 
of  the  community  such  men  should  be  excluded.  It  demoralizes 
workers  to  have  among  them  people  who  lack  seriousness  of 
purpose,  and  it  does  not  look  well  to  have  any  large  percentage  of 
the  farms  abandoned. 

The  requirement  that  a  settler  should  have  some  capital  does 
not  necessarily  mean  his  exclusion  from  the  benefits  of  this  act. 
If  the  amount  of  capital  required  is  only  10  per  cent  of  the  total 
cost  of  the  farm,  an  equipped  farm  costing  $5,000  will  require 
only  $500  capital,  or,  if  the  settler  chooses  to  begin  as  a  farm 
worker,  he  can  obtain  a  home  which  will  be  his  own,  with  a  com- 
fortable house,  at  an  outlay  not  to  exceed  $2,000,  and  there  his 
initial  capital  would  only  have  to  be  $200,  and  this  sum  of  money 
can  be  readily  earned  and  saved  through  the  opportunities  for 
employment  in  farm  development  which  will  be  afforded. 

In  the  California  State  Land  Settlement,  the  minimum  capital 
of  the  settler  is  $1,500.  That  condition  has  not  caused  the  rejec- 
tion of  a  single  individual  who  was  a  safe  risk,  and  there  are  young 
men  having  farms  in  that  settlement  who  have  accumulated  the 
capital  within  four  years.  As  the  California  farms  vary  in  value 
from  about  $6,000  to  $15,000,  and  the  cost  of  their  improvements 
and  equipment  will  amount  to  $5,000  more,  the  $1,500  is  only 
about  ten  per  cent  of  the  cost  of  the  completed  farm,  and  this 
percentage  of  the  total  cost  is  about  the  minimum  capital  which 
should  be  required  on  the  soldier  settlements  of  this  country.  If 
an  improved  farm  costs  $5,000,  the  settler  should  have  $500.  If 
it  costs  $10,000,  his  capital  should  be  $1,000  and  if,  in  both  cases, 
he  has  three  times  the  sum  named,  so  much  the  better. 


Placing  Soldiers  on  Farm  Colonies  7 

Conversations  with  men  vitally  interested  in  this  movement 
and  who  desire  to  see  the  policy  adopted  show  a  wide  difference  in 
views  regarding  the  authority  which  should  direct  the  settlers, 
look  after  the  development  of  colonies,  and  collect  the  money 
required  to  pay  for  the  land  and  improvements.  This  difference 
in  view  is  mainly  sectional.  In  the  South  the  prevailing  wish  is 
that  the  federal  government  should  perform  this  task.  In  the 
North  and  West,  and  especially  in  those  states  where  the  agricul- 
tural colleges  are  well  equipped  and  progressive,  the  state  board 
is  advocated.  This  is  a  curious  reversal  of  the  former  attitude 
of  these  two  sections  regarding  state's  rights.  The  law  should  be 
drawn  so  as  to  give  the  states  that  desire  to  assume  this  responsi- 
bility, opportunity  to  do  so  but,  where  the  state  is  reluctant,  the 
federal  government  should  direct  the  entire  development.  It  is 
my  belief,  however,  that  a  competent  state  board  would  perform 
this  task  better  than  a  competent  federal  board.  It  will  have, 
back  of  its  action,  state  pride  in  the  success  of  the  development,  a 
knowledge  of  local  conditions  which  will  show  in  the  numerous 
intimate  and  friendly  things  which  help  to  keep  hope  and  courage 
in  the  heart  of  the  settler  when  all  of  his  cash  capital  is  spent  and 
the  outlay  for  living  expenses,  improvements  and  equipment 
seems  unending.  Ultimately  this  plan  of  rural  development  is 
to  be  the  rule  rather  than  the  exception  if  the  rural  civilization  of 
this  country  is  to  keep  pace  with  that  of  other  nations  which  have 
made  government  aid  and  direction  in  land  settlement  a  definite 
public  policy.  The  state  that  manages  a  soldier  settlement  will 
gain  an  experience  which  will  show  in  its  progress  in  future  years. 

The  function  of  the  federal  government  is  to  give  to  this  move- 
ment unity  and  general  direction,  to  provide  the  money  and  expert 
organization  for  the  preparatory  period,  and  to  give  a  broader 
outlook  and  such  oversight  in  the  later  stages  as  to  prevent  experi- 
ments or  extravagance  on  the  part  of  state  boards.  But  the 
state  should  be  the  directing  agent  in  developing  settlements  and 
in  collecting  payments. 

Settlements  Should  Be  Restricted  to  Areas  Large  Enough 
to  Give  Distinct  Community  Life 

The  experience  of  other  countries  has  been  that  attempts  to 
finance  individual  settlers  on  farms  scattered  throughout  rural 


8  The  Annals  of  the  Ameeican  Academy 

communities  have  been  failures.  The  overhead  expenses  of 
management  after  settlement  are  too  great.  Economy  and  eflfi- 
ciency  require  that  there  be  at  least  one  hundred  farms  in  each 
community.  It  needs  that  many  to  create  a  real  community 
spirit,  to  provide  for  cooperative  buying  and  selling  organizations, 
to  establish  any  definite  kind  of  agriculture,  and  to  create  a  morale 
needed  to  bring  the  undertaking  to  a  successful  end. 

The  task  of  improving  and  paying  for  a  farm  is  not  an  easy  one 
even  under  the  generous  terms  which  the  government  may  pro- 
vide. Industry  and  self-denial  extending  over  several  years  are 
certain  to  be  required.  Settlers  will  be  more  ready  to  work  hard 
and  live  simply  if  they  have  neighbors  who  are  doing  the  same 
thing,  but  a  single  family,  placed  in  a  community  of  well-to-do, 
easy-going  farmers  with  their  farms  paid  for,  will  certainly  adopt 
the  methods  and  habits  of  the  neighborhood,  and  a  large  percent- 
age will  fail.  The  English  commissions  reported  that  no  farm 
community  should  have  less  than  2,500  acres.  That  means 
twenty-five  100-acre  farms,  and  no  garden  area  should  have  less 
than  1,000  acres,  which  also  means  homes  for  one  hundred  fam- 
ilies. 

Homes  for  Farm  Laborers 

Every  soldier  settlement  ought  to  contain  whatever  the  com- 
munity needs.  It  ought  to  have  a  common  meeting  place,  a 
social  hall,  and,  if  large  enough,  there  ought  to  be  schools  to  give 
vocational  training  in  agriculture.  The  best-planned  European 
settlements  provide  the  store,  church,  blacksmith  shop,  carpenter 
shop,  and  usually  a  social  hall  and  recreation  common.  In  other 
words,  they  recognize  the  need  for  a  varied  industrial  life.  The 
same  plan  ought  to  be  followed  in  this  country. 

Some  of  the  settlers  will  want  to  be  fruit  growers,  some  poultry 
raisers,  some  market  gardeners,  and  some  will  not  want  the  re- 
sponsibility of  ownership  and  management  of  a  farm  but  will  want 
to  work  for  wages.  The  careful,  experienced,  skillful  farm  worker 
is  an  essential  need  of  agricultural  life.  He  is  just  as  valuable  as 
the  farm  owner,  and  failure  to  recognize  this  fact  and  make  an 
opportunity  for  him  and  his  family  to  live  as  American  citizens 
should  live  has  been  the  cause  of  the  migration  to  the  cities  of 
many  families  who  would,  under  proper  conditions,  rather  Uve  in 


Placing  Soldiers  on  Farm  Colonies  9 

the  country.  In  some  sections  of  the  United  States  the  American 
farm  laborer  has  almost  disappeared.  His  place  has  been  taken 
by  immigrants  from  Southern  Europe  and  Asiatic  countries,  men 
with  low  standards  of  living  and  indifferent  to  their  status  as 
citizens  or  to  their  social  position.  If  these  soldier  settlements 
are  to  be  really  democratic  all  this  must  be  changed.  Homes 
must  be  provided  for  the  wage- workers  which  will  be  as  attractive 
and  comfortable  as  those  for  the  families  of  the  landowners, 
although  they  may,  and  doubtless  will,  cost  less.  They  should 
be  homes  where  the  children  can  grow  up  under  conditions  of  inde- 
pendence and  self-respect  which  ought  to  be  a  heritage  of  every 
American  citizen. 

The  most  valuable  feature  of  the  California  land  settlement  is 
the  two-acre  farm  laborer's  allotment.  This  is  enough  land  to 
give  a  garden,  enable  the  family  to  keep  a  cow,  some  chickens  and 
pigs,  and  to  have  their  own  fruit.  Such  homes  enable  these  fam- 
ilies to  live  cheaply  because  they  grow  most  of  the  things  they  eat. 
The  farm  worker's  home  is  also  a  valuable  feature  of  the  land- 
settlement  schemes  of  Denmark,  of  Germany,  and  of  Australia. 

Nothing  is  more  instructive  than  a  study  of  the  qualifications 
of  the  men  who  secured  the  twenty-one  farm  laborers'  allotments 
on  the  first  California  settlement.  There  are  five  carpenters,  a 
shoemaker,  and  two  skilled  market  gardeners.  The  others  are 
men  who  understand  farm  life  and  farm  work,  are  sober,  indus- 
trious, clean-living  men.  One  has  a  capital  of  $4,700  well  in- 
vested. He  could  have  bought  a  farm,  but  he  has  been  working 
and  saving  as  a  farm  laborer  for  more  than  twenty  years  and  he 
had  no  desire  to  assume  the  risks  and  responsibilities  of  ownership. 
The  farm  laborers  in  this  community  belong  to  the  cooperative 
buying  and  selling  associations.  They  attend  and  participate  in 
the  meetings  which  consider  the  things  that  the  community  is  to 
do  for  its  common  welfare.  It  is  a  restoration  to  our  rural  life  of 
the  old  New  England  town  meeting,  the  thing  that,  as  much  as 
any  single  influence,  gives  capacity  for  self-government.  The 
only  capital  required  of  the  farm  laborer  is  money  enough  to 
meet  the  initial  payment  on  his  land  and  house.  He  can  pay  the 
rest  out  of  his  savings  because  the  amount  involved  is  far  less 
than  that  required  to  pay  rent  in  a  town. 


10  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

The  Need  for  Long-time  Payments  and  Low  Interest  Rates 

The  chief  reason  for  the  rapid  growth  of  tenantry  in  recent 
years  is  that  the  rising  price  of  land  made  it  impossible  for  poor 
men  to  pay  for  farms  in  the  time  which  private  owners  were  willing 
to  give.  The  money  could  not  be  earned  out  of  the  soil.  This 
mistake  must  not  be  repeated  in  soldier  settlements.  The  time 
of  payment  ought  to  be  long  enough  to  enable  the  settler  to  meet 
his  payments  without  undue  anxiety,  risk  or  privation.  In  this 
country  the  usual  time  for  farm  payments  has  been  five  years 
and  rarely  longer  than  ten  years.  In  Denmark,  under  state 
land  settlement  acts,  it  is  from  50  to  75  years;  in  Germany,  50 
years;  in  Ireland,  68  years;  in  Australia,  31  to  36  years;  in  Cali- 
fornia, 40  years;  and  the  commission  on  soldier  settlement  in 
England  recommends  that  60  years  be  the  payment  period  there. 

If  the  interest  rate  in  America  be  made  5  per  cent  and  the  pay- 
ments are  amortized,  a  yearly  payment  of  6  per  cent  on  the  cost 
will  pay  for  the  farm  in  36  years ;  8  per  cent  a  year  will  pay  off  the 
debt  in  20  years.  The  difference  between  6  per  cent  and  8  per 
cent,  in  the  case  of  some  struggling  settler,  may  mean  the  differ- 
ence between  being  able  to  keep  up  with  his  obligations  and  falling 
behind  wath  them,  hence  the  payment  period  ought  to  be  not  less 
than  20  years,  and  36  years  would,  in  some  cases,  be  preferable. 

Working  Out  Settlement  Plans 

The  conditions  under  which  settlers  are  given  farms  must  vary 
greatly  in  the  several  states.  The  methods  of  development  will 
also  vary  in  different  sections.  The  plan  of  operation  on  the 
neglected  farms  of  the  Atlantic  states,  on  the  great  unsettled 
areas  of  the  South  Atlantic  and  Gulf  seaboard,  and  on  the  arid 
lands  of  the  West,  must  be  entirely  different.  Our  success  is 
going  to  depend  in  large  measure  on  the  intelligence  which  we 
show  in  adjusting  methods  to  conditions. 

On  much  of  the  neglected  or  abandoned  farm  areas  I  have 
visited,  the  best  plan  would  be  to  put  the  settler  on  his  farm. 
Say  to  him  that  it  is  going  to  take  two  or  three  years  to  clear  the 
land,  bring  the  soil  into  condition  to  produce  crops,  and  that  no 
payment  will  be  required  during  that  time.  On  the  contrary, 
that  he  will  be  paid  for  every  acre  properly  cleared,  for  every  rod 


Placing  Soldiers  on  Farm  Colonies  11 

of  fence  built,  and  for  the  fertilizing  and  manuring  of  the  worn-out 
lands;  that  he  will  be  helped  in  the  erection  of  farm  buildings, 
and  when  the  preparatory  part  is  over,  the  money  advanced  to 
pay  for  these  improvements  will  be  added  to  the  cost  of  the  farm, 
and  the  settler  will  then  begin  paying  for  an  improved  pro])erty. 

In  the  logged-off  land  and  in  areas  needing  irrigation  and  drain- 
age an  entirely  different  plan  must  be  followed.  Settlers  should 
not  be  allotted  farms  on  these  lands  until  the  irrigation  and 
drainage  works  have  been  completed  and  the  arid  land  leveled 
for  the  application  of  water.  These  are  the  tasks  of  an  engineer 
and  not  of  a  farmer.  There  the  intending  settler  w^ho  is  waiting 
for  his  farm  can  find  employment.  He  can  work  for  wages  while 
his  farm  is  being  made  ready  for  cultivation. 

In  every  settlement  there  needs  to  be  provision  for  expert 
assistance  and  direction  in  the  building  of  houses  and  other  im- 
provements, and  when  the  settlers  are  on  the  land  there  will  be 
needed  a  superintendent  who  will  be  the  confidential  adviser  of 
those  directing  this  movement  and  a  source  of  encouragement 
and  admonition  of  the  settlers.  He  will  advise  them  about 
farming  methods  to  save  them  from  the  consequences  of  inexpe- 
rience and  weakness.  The  government  will  have  to  depend  on 
him  for  advice  as  to  who  should  be  aided,  and  those  on  whom  aid 
will  be  thrown  away  because  they  lack  the  qualities  essential  to 
success.  In  many  ways  the  superintendent  of  the  settlement  is 
the  most  important  officer  connected  with  this  movement.  He 
must  understand  the  locality;  he  must  understand  the  kind  of 
farming  that  will  succeed  there;  he  must  have  tact  and  business 
judgment ;  he  must  have  sympathy  for  those  who  strive,  and  firm- 
ness with  those  who  undertake  to  abuse  the  government's  gener- 
osity. In  every  settlement  the  first  three  years  will  be  critical, 
and  this  is  the  period  where  advice,  encouragement  and  direction 
will  not  only  mean  that  the  management  or  success  and  failure 
will  be  on  the  right  side,  but  it  will  do  much  in  the  creation  of  the 
kind  of  agriculture  and  the  kind  of  rural  life  that  we  as  a  nation 
need,  and  which  nothing  but  community  organization  and  the 
mobilizing  of  the  expert  knowledge  of  the  country  in  constructive 
action  will  create.   ' 


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